So how was 'the big one' in 2006?Friday: Post 7, SS3/6 Rheola
A late enough start to be able to cash in on the 'breakfast' element of B&B (even though it was 6:30am). The best bit was having the whole section to ourselves. Richard was the 'main man' for the sector, Jon had his new 'pole', it wasn't raining, we were good to go. With all the recent tree felling it was a while before I, at least, realised that we'd been here before. Not sure of the year, maybe 1999 or earlier. A perfect spot - car visible for at least a minute at a time. With the walky-talkies appropriately distributed there was much banter, especially when it looked like I might have been able to pick up a spare wing mirror for my new Skoda (turned out it wasn't).
Saturday: Service D, SS13 Cardiff
Time for breakfast again! This was turning out to be an exceptional year.Service is always worth a visit. The only problem is being with the Binns; they know so many people it takes forever to get anywhere; they're always stopping to catch up with someone else!
No one came in particularly wrecked so it was pretty much the standard check over and change; albeit done in a fraction of the time your garage would have taken for the same.
Then it was along the M4 to the usual disorganisation that is the Cardiff stage. Everybody means well, but somehow we've not managed to pull it off quite yet. Once again Jon had problems with the comms and a 1-in, 1-out strategy was as complicated as we could run it. The decision to break and run the MPH show after the first 15 runners were through, a break of over an hour, was disastrous. That the vast majority of spectators were there for the rally was proved by most staying in their seats until the last car had completed the stage.
As I pulled into the B&B at gone 11pm the rain had begun to fall, a foretaste of what Sunday was to bring.
Sunday: Post 17, SS15/17 TrawscoedThis goes down as one of the most frustrating starts to a day of marshaling I can remember. Hitting the road at 2:30am to find most of Wales blowing across my path, to dodging trees and branches, to find that the route to sign-on had been changed, to an abortive attempt to find Post 1b, there were more occasions than I'd like to admit when the temptation to point the bonnet eastwards and head for home was as much as I could resist. I parked up alongside Richard, Matt & Gary only to find that they, too, had failed to find our assigned position. Over the next 2 hours we became the unwanted marshals, being moved from post to post, without finding a home. Finally we ended up at 17 and, in all honesty, it wasn't bad. Across the valley, hidden by dense trees, from the earlier part of the stage, we got at least 6 cars warning before our first arrived; the anticipation of how that first competitor will take your junction being one of the joys of a day in the woods. Sheltering under the trees from the rain, Richard and I ran into the organising crew for the Manx National (funny who you can find); having marshaled that event back in my younger days ('83/'84), I'd be up for it one year.
Summary:All in all , not a bad year. The higher entry certainly gave us more to watch after the first day. Yet it still amazes me that a Stage Commander thinks his marshals can find a track no wider than a sheep's behind, at 4am, in a forest they've never been to before, whilst it's raining, when a little thought (a stake with '1b' stapled to it, perhaps?) would prevent a lot of frustration.
Any budding SCs out there, take note!
Peter
